Mike Lorengo's Weblog

Vonage So Far So Good

Well, I got fed up with Qwest charging me over $50 a month for my local & long distance service, so I signed up for Vonage VOIP on December 7^th of last year. I’m now giving my one month update.

 

First let’s investigate my Qwest bill

Feature	Qwest	Vonage
Basic Residence Line	12.50	24.95
Federal Access Charge	5.94	0.00
Regulatory Recovery Fee		1.50
Non Published Service	.75
Voice Messaging	6.95
Total	26.14	26.49

 

So a quick look shows the two to be about equal. But now let’s figure in the local long distance, and the other long distance

Feature	Qwest	Vonage
Local Long Distance (Avg Charges)	6.76
Long Distance Charges (Avg Charges)	4.60
Total	11.36	0.00

 

Hmm, so I can save on average about 10 bucks a month by going with Vonage. Now, here is where the real advantage comes in. Let’s compare the traditional phone company and VOIP on the “other charges” spreadsheet. The Qwest bill says to look at www.qwest.com for charge explanations. The closest I found (I didn’t look too hard) is in the table below.

 

Qwest Charges (Explanation Here)	Qwest	Vonage
Federal Excise Tax @ 3%	.84	0.75
State Sales Tax @ 6.5%	.47
Local Sales Tax @ 1.9%	.14
Special District Sales Tax @ 0.4%	.03
City Occupation Tax @6.382%	1.72
State 911 @ .20 / line	.20
Local 911 @ .50 / line	.50
Federal Universal Service Fund @ 8.9%	.53
TRS Excise Funds Federal ADA @ .14 / line	.14
Telephone Assistance Program @ .13 / line	.13
Total	4.70	0.75

 

Now let’s look at AT&T’s charges

AT&T Charges (Explanation Here)	AT&T	Vonage
Bill Statement Fee (What!)	2.50
Regulatory Assessment Fee	.99
Federal Tax @ 3%	.30
City Tax / Fees Surcharge	.14
Other Taxes	.91
Total	4.84	0.00

 

So, I’m paying almost $10 in fees and charges and it looks like I won’t be paying any of that in the near future either, plus I get additional line features with vonage such as

Ø      Caller-ID

Ø      3-Way Calling

Ø      Call Forwarding

Ø      Voicemail via Email

Ø      Call Waiting

Ø      Call Transfer

Ø      Call Return

Ø      And a whole slew of others

 

Plus I got a LinkSys Phone adapter at CompUsa for $10 (After Rebate) and Vanessa can talk to her sister in LA for hours on end while they play Diablo over the Internet. The only issue right now is that I only have it on one phone because it’s taken over 15 days to get my Qwest phone number transferred to Vonage. Once I get the number transferred, I simply plug the adapter into a wall outlet (after unplugging the powered outside Qwest house connection), and I get tone on all the phones in my house.

Hurray!